Staffers present at Washington diplomatic meeting say Russians justified support for Assad by citing US support for Israel.

Russian diplomats in Washington, trying to justify Moscow’s support of Syrian
President Bashar Assad to Senate staffers earlier this month, compared what
Assad is doing in Syria to Israel’s policies in Gaza.

According to
information from staffers who were at the meeting, the central theme of the
briefing – aimed at giving an overview of Russia’s Syrian policy – was that
there was no reason for Moscow to stop supporting Assad because both the
government and the opposition had committed “crimes.”

The Russian
diplomats, dispatched to Capitol Hill for the meeting by the Russian embassy in
Washington, said it was preferential to keeping Assad in power – with the
“necessary adjustments” – because that would be better for regional
stability.

When the US staffers pushed back against the Russian argument,
the Russian diplomats – according to participants in the meeting – replied that
the US had no right complaining against Moscow’s support for
Assad.

Washington supported Israel, they said, which takes similar
actions against the Palestinians in Gaza.